Samantha Sommersby Read online

  Raif was a vampire. That little fact, of course, hadn’t been in the case file. He was definitely older than me, but how much older, I wasn’t sure. Although strength increases with age, there are always exceptions. Immortals can train and increase their abilities. But it takes a tremendous amount of dedication and discipline. You don’t see it often. I guess when you think you have all the time in the world it’s easy to procrastinate and just let nature take its course. When it comes down to it? It’s not really the age that’s important. It’s the power. Raif’s wasn’t impressive. Not to me. But then I’d been trained well, very well.

  I leaned back in my chair, stretching my legs out in front of me and parting my knees. I did it slowly, provocatively. Then I drained the remainder of the scotch that he’d given me, placed the glass back on the table, and began to trace the rim of the glass leisurely with my index finger.

  Raif’s eyes traveled up the length of my body; he made no attempt to hide his interest. He was hungry, but not for food and certainly not for blood, at least not at the moment.

  “I’m saving it for the lady,” I replied with a wink.

  He turned to look at her for a moment, but before long his attention was back on me. “I’m having a private party later at my place. The lady’s welcome too. We’ll have dinner and get to know one another… Come.”

  I felt a familiar push of black tendrils probing at the edge of my mind. He wanted inside, desperately, but I deftly shut him out.

  “The job?” I asked, nodding towards Alex.

  Raif grinned. “Interesting. You’re more powerful than you look. You have a deceptive air of youth still about you. How old are you?”

  I leaned forward and looked him directly in the eye. “How old do you think I am?”

  “Old enough that I wonder what you’re really doing here. Why would an Immortal with your power want a job as a bouncer?”

  I let my eyes drift back to the stage.

  He laughed. “Oh, that’s priceless! You’re doing this for her?”

  I nodded. I find it’s best to keep things simple. For as far back as anyone can remember men have done stupid things, things that make no sense, in the name of love. We all know it, none of us understand it, and we’re all just a tad embarrassed by it. Rarely will someone ask more questions after a confession such as this.

  “She must be some fabulous fuck, huh?” he asked, turning his attention back to the stage. The longer he watched her, the more I could smell his arousal. Apparently Raif wasn’t particular about gender. I figured that I had better draw the line in the sand for the horny bastard fast.

  “I don’t share well,” I told him.

  “Pity,” said Raif. “What if she’s interested?”

  “She’s not.”

  The song came to an end. Alex stood up on stage waiting expectantly, the spotlight still on her.

  “We’ll see,” he said.

  ~

  The elevator door opened and I swiftly exited, doing my best to keep up with Alex as she stormed down the hallway of the hotel, the train of her beaded gown clutched in one hand as she dragged her suitcase behind her determinedly with the other. How the hell a woman could walk so fast in shoes that high and a dress that tight, I’ll never know.

  “Respectable distance?” I hissed, catching up to her. “We’re supposed to be lovers.”

  “What did you expect me to do? Stand there with my hand on your ass and my tongue in your ear?” she asked, savagely shoving the key card into the door over and over without effect.

  Honestly? That sounded pretty darn good to me.

  “You have it upside down, sweetheart,” I told her, grabbing her wrist and stilling her hand.

  She wrenched her wrist free of my grasp, turned the card over, slid in into the lock one more time, then pushed the door open.

  “Don’t call me sweetheart,” she growled, her slow burn now bubbling dangerously close to a full-blown rage. Alex tossed her bag onto the bed, unzipped it, and rummaged through until she found a pair of sweat pants and a t-shirt. I would have rather seen her in the black lace bra and panties that spilled out onto the bed.

  “I’m gonna wash this gunk off my face and go for a run before I kill you. When I get back I’ll shower and we can go out for dinner. Okay?” She punctuated the last word with a smile that looked almost painful.

  Sometimes I just don’t know when to keep my mouth shut. After all, I could have just agreed with her. That would have been the simple thing. But something came over me and instead I verbalized the truth. “You can’t kill me.”

  Alex stormed up to me. I swear that the energy around her was crackling she was so pissed. A half a foot shorter and sixty pounds lighter, and she was ready to go toe to toe with me. What a woman.

  Before she could fire off the next round I opened my cell phone and began to dial. “We should pull out,” I told her. “This isn’t going to work. We’re not working.”

  “Why don’t you just say what you really mean!” she practically shouted as she reached for the phone.

  “Color me confused,” I replied, doing my level best to remain calm, “I thought I just did.” Then, I stepped back, held the cell up to my ear, and listened to it ring. “I’m the senior Agent. We’re in the field. I’m in charge. That’s the rule, Miss I-like-to-go-by-the-Book. If we can’t pull this off then we call it quits now.”

  “Quit? No way, I’m not a quitter,” she protested.

  Simon picked up. He was my liaison with the PSF, the Preternatural Special Forces, the guy assigned to support me when I was on assignment. The PSF was made up of a small contingent of agents like me, agents with special abilities. Not all of us were vamps, there were some shapeshifters, several fairies, a few ghosts, a couple succubi, and rumor had it they were close to recruiting their first angel.

  “This is zulu, tango, November, Romeo, Charlie, six, nine. Secure.”

  There was a moment of silence. Then Simon repeated, “Secure.”

  “We’ve encountered complications. Let the powers that be know we’re out,” I told him.

  Alex grabbed the phone. “We’re not out. We’ll call you back.” Then she hung up and tossed the phone onto the bed.

  I watched silently as Alex removed the Ostrich feather trimmed overcoat that she was wearing and laid it neatly on the bed.

  “Do I even want to know who I just hung up on?”

  I got the impression that she was stalling for time. I didn’t care. Being immortal, I had all the time in the world.

  “My liaison.”

  “You have a liaison?”

  “Don’t all the hot shot boy wonders have liaisons?”

  She blushed. “I’m sorry.” Alex placed her hands on her hips, took a deep breath then looked at me and asked, “Can we talk about this?”

  Talk? Now that surprised me. I was gearing up for a shouting match. I scratched the back of my head. “I’m not so good at that,” I told her honestly. “I’m really more of an action kind of guy.”

  I was rewarded with a small smile.

  “Can you try? I’ll start. How about that?”

  “Okay.” Mr. Agreeable, that’s me.

  “I’m sorry that I pulled away when you tried to kiss my neck in front of Raif. I’ll try not to do it again. I won’t do it again,” she said. “I know I messed up and… I hate the fact that I did. I’m not mad at you. I’m… I’m mad at myself,” she finished, the last part confessed so quietly it was almost a whisper.

  She sat down on the end of the king-sized bed, leaned back, crossed her legs and then nervously looked up at me. She had gorgeous legs and the generous slit in her gown showed them off nicely. How could I stay mad at legs like that?

  “It’s just a role, Alex,” I said, sitting down beside her. “Just like when you were up on stage. The performance doesn’t end when the lights dim. Here you’re on twenty-four seven. This is it. This is the job. Undercover isn’t for everyone. There’s no shame in walking away.”

  “I’m no
t walking away,” she declared emphatically.

  “Then the question is… Can you do it?”

  “Yes,” she replied, her voice sounding steady and certain. “You just surprised me, that’s all. It’s just that you’re more…” Alex licked her lips and glanced up towards the ceiling as if she were searching for just the right word.

  “What?”

  “I don’t know. It felt…intense,” she said. “Next time I’ll expect it. Come on, Dell. We can do this. Don’t pull the plug.”

  “Okay. How about this? Forget the run. Take a long luxurious bath. Relax. We’ll stay in tonight, order room service and watch a movie, your pick. We’ll see if we can make a go of this pretending to be a couple thing.”

  I witnessed the shift. A playful smile and tilt of the head as she reached out and placed her hand on my chest.

  “You’ll really let me pick the movie?” she asked, batting her eyes like the consummate coquette.

  “Oh! Now, there you go,” I said, slipping my arm around her waist. “That’s getting into the spirit of things.”

  She gasped when I tugged her towards me. I felt her stiffen for an instant, her body tensed as if she were going to pull away. But she didn’t. Instead she forced herself to relax.

  I nodded, pleased. “Good.”

  “It wasn’t good,” she said, disappointment evident in her voice. “But it was better. You’re right. Staying in is a good idea. We have work to do. If we’re going to be able to pull this off effectively, I’ve got to practice.”

  “We don’t have much time. They probably know our room number already. They could be setting up surveillance. We need to be careful. From this moment on—”

  “I get it. I won’t let you down. I won’t break cover,” she said solemnly. Then she stood up, turned and began to walk towards the bathroom.

  “Alex?” I called out just as she was about to cross the threshold.

  She paused and turned towards me. “Yes?”

  “You can trust me. I won’t cross the line. I know this isn’t real. This is strictly business. It’s about the mission. The mission comes first.”

  “Right,” she agreed then she stepped into the bathroom and closed the door.

  “Christ,” I groaned.

  Sitting down on the edge of the bed, I removed my boots and socks.

  What a friggin’ disaster.

  I flopped back onto the mattress and tried to review the events of today in my mind. Was the mission even salvageable? I wasn’t sure. Alex had been penciled in for this operation even before Dad’s manipulation resulted in our temporary partnership assignment. She was green and this would have been a stretch for her to begin with. But now?

  If Raif was a vampire, there were bound to be others around. How the hell was I going to explain that Alex and I were lovers, yet somehow I’d managed to hide my nature from her? Was that even possible?

  I’d never tried to hold back before, not during sex. So the truth was that I just didn’t know. I checked my watch and thought about calling my father. The conversation was going to be awkward, but I wasn’t sure whom else to ask.

  “Dell?” Alex called out.

  I turned my head towards the bathroom door. There on the bed, right in front of my nose were her panties. Just as I was about to reach for them, the bathroom door opened.

  “I can’t get the zipper,” she said.

  I walked over to the bathroom. When I reached the door, she’d stepped back inside. Her back was to me and she was fishing hairpins out of hair. I watched the waves tumble out of what had been a carefully coiffed updo.

  “Do you mind?”

  “Not at all,” I assured her.

  I stepped into the bathroom so that I stood behind her. I moved on instinct, adopting an air of intimacy, the kind that you find between new lovers, familiar yet fresh. Without thought I swept her hair over one of her shoulders, exposing the zipper. Then I reached for it, taking the tab between my fingers and pulling it down gently, slowly, watching as the luxurious fabric of the beaded gown parted to reveal a perfect span of sun-kissed skin. She wasn’t wearing a bra.

  My eyes lifted to connect with hers in the mirror. They must have revealed too much because she blushed. “I can get the rest,” she whispered, then looked away.

  “Of course,” I told her, stepping back.

  “Wait,” she said, turning to face me, her expression softer. “I’m sorry, Dell. I didn’t mean to make things awkward between us by pulling away earlier. I’m probably just not as…experienced as you are. I haven’t had many relationships. Touch me again, like you did before, in front of Raif.”

  “The past is just that, the past,” I told her, cupping her cheek in the palm of my hand and looking into her eyes. “I’m utterly devoted to you, Alex. You have to believe that. You have to believe that I’ve never felt about anyone the way I feel about you. I never will feel about anyone the way I feel about you.”

  Alex swallowed. She looked panicked, like an actress on stage whose forgotten her lines and just realized that there was no one standing in the wings to feed them to her.

  I leaned in and whispered into the shell of her ear. “You’re doing great. Don’t quit on me.”

  Alex nodded then released the breath that she seemed to have been holding. “I do,” she said. “I do believe that.”

  I reached down to shut off the taps to the bath.

  “Tell me that you love me?” she asked.

  I placed my hands on her shoulders, leaned down, and told her what she wanted to hear, “I love you, you know I do.”

  “Tell me a secret,” she whispered. “Tell me something that’s real and true. Tell me something that you’ve never told any other woman.”

  She was beginning to feel aroused by the charade. I could sense the increase in her heart rate and body temperature, smell the tinge of her desire. She was affected by my touch, by my closeness. Did that knowledge place me at an unfair advantage? Yes. Should I have turned around and walked out of the bathroom? Probably. But I didn’t want to. Earlier she’d invited me to touch her again. We’d said that it was about going through the motions, about the job, strictly professional. Maybe it was. But maybe it wasn’t. Maybe it was more than that. One thing was certain, if I ever wanted to know, I couldn’t just let the moment pass. There was only one way to find out.

  “I have so many secrets,” I said truthfully. “I don’t know where to start.”

  Alex sighed and let her head fall back against my chest. I looked down at the long column of exposed neck. I’d never tasted blood before. I’d never even been tempted to. But I was then, and it frightened me. I’d fucked plenty of women, both vampire and human. But I’d never felt this…this sense of urgency and need. Perhaps father was right. Perhaps she was Chosen.

  “I’m going to kiss you,” I warned her, half-hoping that she’d stop me. That she’d stop this. I playfully dragged my index finger down the path that I wanted to trace with my mouth.

  She licked her lips. They were lush and full.

  “Okay,” she said, her voice but a whisper.

  “Not on the mouth, here.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I need to,” I admitted, then I leaned down slowly towards her. I inhaled, letting her scent surround me and it fueled my excitement. My cock was rock hard and I desperately wanted to grind it against her. Instead, I exhaled. A ragged sigh of hot breath fluttered against her neck, warming her, teasing her. Then I opened my mouth and lowered my head.

  My hands moved from her shoulders, sliding down the length of her arms to rest at her waist, and then I kissed her. I closed my eyes and savored the moment. Her skin tasted exotic, like some sinfully rich dessert that you couldn’t get enough of. Before I knew what I was doing, my tongue was on her.

  I tugged her closer, so that I could feel the pressure of her ass rubbing against me. I heard the beads of her gown clack together with the sudden motion. I needed the friction. I wanted release. The bathroom had suddenly grown
hot. It was more than the steam from the bath. It was the fire between us. Just as I reached and latched on to that spot behind Alex’s ear, a moan escaped her lips. What I wouldn’t have done to hear more of those. But I couldn’t.

  Keep it professional, I reminded myself. Remember your duty.

  “Steady, baby,” I murmured into the shell of her ear, as I threaded my fingers through the long silken tresses of her hair, wrapping one digit around a single strand. I gave her a moment to recover. “I’m going to let go now,” I told her, then I yanked.